Altai languages

Due to its isolated position in the Altai Mountains and contact with surrounding languages, the exact classification of Altai within the Turkic languages has often been disputed. Because of its geographic proximity to the Shor and Khakas languages, some classifications place it in a Northern Turkic subgroup.[https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroups/northern-1 Northern Turkic] in {{e25}}

Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, it has been grouped as the Kyrgyz–Kipchak subgroup with the Kypchak languages which is within the Turkic language family.{{cite journal |last1=Baskakov |first1=N. A. |title=La Classification Des Dialectes De La Langue Turque D'altaï |trans-title=Classification of dialects of the Altai Turkic language |language=fr |journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |date=1958 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=9–15 |jstor=23682215 }}{{cite encyclopedia |title=Алтайский язык |trans-title=Altai language |last=Kormushin |first=I. V. |lang=ru |date=2018 |encyclopedia=Большая российская энциклопедия/Great Russian Encyclopedia Online |url=https://bigenc.ru/linguistics/text/5199785 |access-date=2021-07-28 |archive-date=2021-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727181345/https://bigenc.ru/linguistics/text/5199785 |url-status=dead }} A classification by Talat Tekin places Southern Altai in its own subgroup within Turkic and groups the Northern Altai dialects with Lower Chulym and the Kondoma dialect of Shor.{{cite journal |last1=Teki̇n |first1=Talat |title=A new Classifıcation of the Chuvash-Turkic Languages |journal=Erdem |date=January 1989 |issue=13 |pages=129–140 |doi=10.32704/erdem.1989.13.129 }}

Though they are traditionally considered one language, Southern Altai is not fully mutually intelligible with the Northern varieties. According to modern classifications—at least since the middle of the 20th century—they are considered to be two separate languages.{{cite book |surname=Baskakov |given=Nikolay |author-link=Nikolai Baskakov (linguist) |title= Алтайский язык|trans-title=The Altai language |publisher=Nauka |year=1958 |location=Moscow |language=ru}}

{{cn span |text=Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, and according to Ethnologue is rejected by Northern Altai children. |date=January 2024}} In 2006, a Cyrillic alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety of Northern Altai for use in Altai Krai.[http://www.indigenous.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=215 В Алтайском крае издана азбука кумандинского языка. 2006]

File:WIKITONGUES- Dmitry speaking Altai.webm

Dialects are as follows:

• Southern Altai
• Altai proper
• Mayma
• Telengit
• Tölös
• Chuy
• Teleut
• Northern Altai
• Tuba
• Kumandy
• Turachak
• Solton
• Starobardinian
• Chalkan (also called Kuu, Lebedin)

Closely related to the northern varieties are Kondoma Shor and Lower Chulym, which have -j- for proto-Turkic inter-vocalic *d, unlike Mras Shor and Middle Chulym, which have -z- and are closer to Khakas.

Altai is an official language of the Altai Republic, alongside Russian. The official Altai language is based on the Southern Altai language spoken by the group called the Altay-Kiži, however in the few years it has also spread to the Northern Altai Republic.{{Cite web |date=2015-11-16 |title=Notes from the Altai Republic |url=https://creeca.wisc.edu/notes-from-the-altai-republic/ |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=CREECA |language=en-US}}

The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altai.{{Cite book

| last = Баскаков

| first = Николай Александрович

| title = Диалект Черневых Татар (Туба-Кижи): грамматический очерк и словарь.

| publisher = Наука

| year = 1966

| location = Москва }}{{Cite book

| last = Баскаков

| first = Николай Александрович

| title = Диалект Кумандинцев (Куманды-Кижи): грамматический очерк, тексты, переводы и словарь.

| publisher = Наука

| year = 1972

| location = Москва }}{{Cite book

| last = Баскаков

| first = Николай Александрович

| title = Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи)

| publisher = Наука

| year = 1985

| location = Москва }}

• */ag/ — Proto-Turkic */ag/ is found in three variations throughout Northern Altai: /u/, /aw/, /aʁ/.
• */eb/ — Proto-Turkic */eb/ is found as either /yj/ or /yg/, depending on the variety.
• */VdV/ — With a few lexical exceptions (likely borrowings), proto-Turkic intervocalic */d/ results in /j/.

The sounds of the Altai language vary among different dialects.

The voiced palatal plosive {{IPA|/ɟ/}} varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in the initial position, and may be recognized as a voiced affricate {{IPA|/d͡z/}}. Forms of the word јок "no" include {{IPA|[coq]}} (Kuu dialect) and {{IPA|[joq]}} (Kumandy). Even within dialects, this phoneme varies greatly.{{cite book

| last = Baskakov

| first = N.A.

| title = A History of Afghanistan

| script-title=ru:Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи)

| series = Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка

| year = 1985

| publisher = Издательство «Наука»

| location = Moscow

| language = ru

| oclc = 21048607

| isbn = 0-8285-3393-8}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}{{cite book

| last = Baskakov

| first = N.A.

| title = A History of Afghanistan

| script-title=ru:Диалект Кумандынцев (Куманды-Кижи)

| series = Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка

| year = 1972

| publisher = Издательство «Наука»

| location = Moscow

| language = ru

| oclc = 38772803

| isbn = 0-8285-3393-8}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}{{Cite book|title=Алтайский язык.|last=Баскаков|first=Николай Александрович|year=1997|location=Москва}}

There are eight vowels in Altai. These vowels may be long or short.

The language was written with the Latin script from 1928 to 1938, but has used Cyrillic (with the addition of 9 extra letters: Јј {{IPA|[d͡z~ɟ]}}, Ҥҥ {{IPA|[ŋ]}}, Ӧӧ {{IPA|[ø~œ]}}, Ӱӱ {{IPA|[y~ʏ]}}, Ғғ {{IPA|[ʁ]}}, Ққ {{IPA|[q]}}, Һһ {{IPA|[h]}}, Ҹҹ {{IPA|[d͡ʑ]}}, Ii {{IPA|[ɨ̹]}}) since 1938.

The letter Ÿ is sometimes used instead of Ӱ.

The first writing system for Altai was invented by missionaries from the Altai Spiritual Mission in the 1840s; it was based on the Cyrillic alphabet and invented for the Teleut dialect and was used mostly for Church publications.V. N. Tadikin. Orthography of the Altai language (in Russian) || Orthography of the Turkic literary languages of the USSR. – Moscow: Nauka, 1973 The first books were printed in Altai not long thereafter and in 1868, the first Altai alphabet was published. There was no stable form of this alphabet, and it changed from edition-to-edition.

With this in mind, this is an inventory of some of these letters:

After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, publishing books into Altai was resumed in 1921,[https://web.archive.org/web/20160319130358/http://www.nbra.ru/index.php/osnovnie-dati-istorii-knigi-altaya Basic Dates of Altai Book History]. using a script similar to the Missionary's Alphabet. About this time, many post-revolution letters were adopted to better compose Russian words adopted into the language. As such, it took on this form (non-Russian letters bolded):

Interestingly, in the same space, many considered adapting the old Mongolian script for use in writing Altai.М.S. Katashev. National-language construction in the Mountainous Altai in the 1920s–1930s: Experience, History, Problems.

Altai language and culture: modern trends in development. – Gorno-Altaisk, 2016. – pg. 109–116, 260, and 350 – {{ISBN|978-5-903693-32-0}}.{{vs|Google Books has the title for this ISBN as Язык и культура алтайцев: современные тенденции развития: материалы региональной научно-практической конференции, which Google Translate lists as Language and culture of the Altaians: modern development trends: materials of the regional scientific and practical conference. Is this a different book? Is the ISBN wrong? Is the text a translation of a chapter?|date=March 2025}}

The Latin alphabet was eventually adopted and was used from 1922 to 1928. The final version of this alphabet was published in 1931, taking this form:А. Тыбыкова. Об усовершенствовании и унификация алфавита алтайского языка (рус.) // Вопросы совершенствования алфавитов тюркских языков СССР. — М.: Наука, 1972. — С. 41–48.

The Latin letters correspond as follows to the modern Cyrillic letters:{{Cite book |last1=Баскаков |first1=Н.А. |title=Ойротско-русский словарь |last2=Тощакова |first2=Т.М. |publisher=ОГИЗ |year=1947 |location=Москва |pages=224–225}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2022}}

In 1938, the Central Research Institute of Language and Writing of the Peoples of the USSR began the project of designing a new alphabet for Altai, based on the Cyrillic script. Their new alphabet consisted of all 33 Russian letters, as well as the digraph {{angbr|Дь дь}} and the letter {{angbr|Ҥҥ}}, for the phonemes /d͡ʒ/ and /ŋ/ respectively. However, this was later rejected, because it could not accurately represent all of Altai's phonological inventory.

To amend for this, the Institute's first revised alphabet saw the graphemes {{angbr|Ёё}} and {{angbr|Юю}} for Altai's vowels {{IPA|/ø~œ/}} and {{IPAslink|y}} fall out of use, and the addition of two digraphs and two letters: {{angbr|Дь дь}} for /d͡ʒ/, {{angbr|Нъ нъ}}for /ŋ/, {{angbr|Ӧӧ}} for /ø~œ/, and {{angbr|Ӱӱ}} for /y/. In the second revision, however, {{angbr|Нъ нъ}} was replaced with {{angbr|Ҥҥ}}. Thus was created:

Altai speakers accepted the first variant, but generally preferred {{angbr|Н' н'}} over {{angbr|Ҥҥ}}.

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2022}}

Their second Cyrillic alphabet had many shortcomings, thus begging for a reform, which was carried out in 1944. The usage of {{angbr|Ёё}} and {{angbr|Юю}} {{IPA|/ø~œ/}} and {{IPA|/y/}} was dropped entirely, being replaced by the adoption of the Institute's second revision's usages of {{angbr|Ӧӧ}}, and {{angbr|Ӱӱ}}, for native words. {{angbr|Дь дь}} was dropped in favour of {{angbr|Јј}}; for {{angbr|Н' н'}}, they finally accepted {{angbr|Ҥҥ}}.

The letters {{angbr|Ёё}}, {{angbr|Юю}}, and {{angbr|Яя}} are still used, though they are reserved for only non-native, Russian loan-words. So, in modern Standard Altai, the equivalent sounds are written as {{angbr|йа}}, {{angbr|йо}} and {{angbr|йу}}, for native words. So, words that were written as {{lang|alt|кая}} 'cliff, rock' and {{lang|alt|коён}} 'hare' are now written as {{lang|alt|кайа}} and {{lang|alt|койон}} respectively.

Altai has six personal pronouns:

The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart.

Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.{{cite book

| last = Сатлаев

| first = Ф.А.

| script-title=ru:Учитесь говорить по-кумандински, русско-кумандинский разговорник

| date = n.d.

| publisher = Горно-Алтайская типография

| location = ?

| language = ru}}

Bible in Altai language{{Cite web |title=Иисус Христостыҥ ада-ӧбӧкӧлӧри |url=https://ibt.org.ru/ru/text?m=ALT&l=Matt&g=0 |access-date=2024-08-18 |website=Institute for Bible Translation}}

1. Îsus Xristosıñ ada öbökölöri, ol David le Avrâmnıñ kaldıgı
2. Avrâmnañ İsâk tûlgan, İsâktañ İakov tûlgan, İakovtoñ İuda la onıñ karındaştarı tûlgan
3. İudanıñ üyi bolgon Famar'dañ Fares le Zara tûlgan, Yesromoñ Aram tûlgan
4. Aramnañ Aminadav tûlgan, Aminadavtañ Nâsson tûlgan, Nassonnoñ Salmon tûlgan,
5. Salmonnıñ üyineñ, Rahavtañ, Vôz tûlgan, Vôztıñ emêni Ruf'tañ Ovid tulgan, Ovidteñ İessey tûlgan,
6. İesseydeñ David-kân tûlgan, David-kânnañ Solomon tûlgan, Solomonnıñ enezi deze Uriyanıñ başkıdagı üyi bolgon
7. Solomonnıñ Rovoam tûlgan, Rovoamnañ Aviya tûlgan, Aviyadañ Asaf tûlgan
8. Asaftañ İosafat tûlgan, İosafattan İoram tûlgan, İoramnañ Oziya tûlgan
9. Oziyadañ İoafam tûlgan, İoafamnañ Ahaz tûlgan, Ahaztañ Yezekiya tûlgan
10. Yezekiyadan Manassiya tûlgan, Manassiyadañ Amon tûlgan, Amonnoñ İosiya tûlgan

• Telengits, Teleuts (related ethnic groups)
• Turkic peoples

{{reflist}}

{{InterWiki|code = alt|South Altai language}}

{{Incubator|code = atv|language=North Altai language}}

• [http://www.tarbagan.net/fotj/AltaiLang.htm Altai Alphabet]
• [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9479/altai.html Altai phrases] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20091027141157/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9479/altai.html Archived] 2009-10-25)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160313235240/http://epaltay.ru/index.php?catid=48:2009-11-26-04-23-57&id=2313:2010-12-15-06-25-51&itemid=83&option=com_content&view=article Russian–Altai Online Dictionary]

{{Languages of Russia}}

{{Turkic languages}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Altay Language}}

Category:Siberian Turkic languages

Category:Languages of Russia

Category:Altai Mountains

Category:Altai culture

Category:Languages written in Cyrillic script